How We Rise

Everything a team does is personal. Everything a team does is plural. Everything a team does, it does together.

Story by Micaela Gerhardt | Photos by Zachary Lucy | September 30, 2025

In his third practice as Bison football head coach, Tim Polasek motioned wide receiver Bryce Lance ’25, ’26 over to the sidelines. It was spring ball, a time of intense preparation for the next fall season coinciding with the final weeks of the academic year.

Bryce hustled over and stood beside his new coach in the Nodak Insurance Company Football Performance Complex, where, during the previous two seasons, he had practiced primarily as a member of special teams.

“You’re an All-Conference player — you need to start performing to that level,” Tim said to him. “Don’t wait for next year.”

Bryce was stunned. Earning an All-Conference award would be challenging, even for the most accomplished collegiate athletes in the Missouri Valley. Though Bryce was starting to gain confidence, he was surprised that Tim set the bar so high. Bryce’s current stats didn’t exactly align with Tim’s vision.

“I was like, ‘I have one catch for seven yards. I don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Bryce said incredulously.

Though Tim didn’t know it yet, Bryce had been struggling — to earn his spot, to brush off his mistakes, to take criticism less personally. A wrong move at 6 a.m. could stick with Bryce as he progressed through team breakfasts at the dining center, his business classes in Richard H. Barry Hall, his weight room routines, his wind-down stretches.

“When I’d do something wrong, it felt like the end of the world,” Bryce said. “I honestly never had a huge problem with the physical aspect — I knew I could do all the workouts, and I knew I could play football — it was more the mental part. I was my biggest critic for sure.”

He hadn’t given up on himself, his team, or his coaches, but Bryce felt a little stuck, a little uncertain about how to elevate his game and make greater contributions.

“It’s disappointing when you don’t play, or you don’t get the chances you think you deserve, but I was never one to complain. I just kept working,” Bryce said. “I’m super thankful because I had the support of my family saying, ‘Your time is coming. Trust the process.’”

So rather than pulling back, Bryce leaned in. He spent the month of May training with his older brother and former Bison quarterback Trey Lance at NFL facilities in Dallas, Texas. Back at NDSU, he started attending the team’s optional physical therapy appointments. After practice, he made sure to get in some extra catches with the quarterbacks. He surrounded himself with high performers and found support with a core group of teammates and friends.

COACH LIKE THE BISON: Tim Polasek’s No. 1 goal is for each player to reach their full potential athletically, academically, and socially.

And then, at exactly the right moment, Tim came along and saw his potential. After sharing his expectations with Bryce, Tim turned his attention to then-quarterback Cam Miller ’25.

“I said, ‘Cam, this guy is good. Start seeing him that way,’” Tim said.

It was a rallying cry. A turning point. And it would have profound implications not just for Bryce, or just for Cam — but for the entire team and its fan base.

Bryce had never been more ready.

In his fourth Bison football season, Bryce made the starting lineup. Wowed fans with an unbelievable one-handed touchdown catch in the semifinal game against South Dakota State. Helped the Bison win their 10th FCS Championship with a career high of nine catches. And earned his place on the first team in the All-Missouri Valley Football Conference, accomplishing precisely the thing Tim believed he was capable of at the very start.

“Speaking that belief into me was so powerful,” Bryce said. “I never stopped working hard, but Coach Polasek gave me another reason to keep going, and I will always be thankful to him for that.”

Since he began his role as head coach in 2024, Tim has been strategic about maintaining an unshakable team culture, and his No. 1 goal is for each player to reach their full potential athletically, academically, and socially.

“To reach your full potential is really, really difficult. How many of us actually do that?” Tim asked. “Bryce is a really good example of a guy who wants to reach his full potential, who is coachable, who is open to us taking him into those tough, sticky spots where it’s difficult, and who works hard at being the best he can be. He represents what’s right with all Bison student-athletes.”

For Tim, this mindset is where the magic happens. He sees excellence catalyzed by each player’s individual commitment to daily habits and decisions that will put the collective team among the top 5% — whether it’s in the classroom, a team meeting, the weight room, at practice, or at home.

“The things that help us sustain the Bison legacy will be to show up, improve daily, be mentally tough, compete, and make good decisions for our academics and our football,” Tim said. “If we can improve for 15 practices, that keeps us on our trajectory, and that’s a scary proposition for the rest of the country.”

It’s a strategy articulated in Jeff Olson’s “The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success,” which all members of the Bison football team read earlier this year.

“‘The Slight Edge’ talks about basic, daily habits that are easy to make up your mind to do, but equally as easy not to do,” Tim said. “You wake up with an opportunity and you do the best you can with it. When you stay on track, and you believe in your teammates and believe in your coaches, good things can happen.”

The team discussed the book in breakout groups at requisite weekly meetings that Tim dubbed “Captain’s School,” a program he designed to equip every member of his team with foundational leadership skills.

READ LIKE THE BISON: Ahead of the 2025 season, the entire football team read and discussed “The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success” by Jeff Olson. Head coach Tim Polasek says it’s the perfect book to read coming off a championship win because it reminds his team that long-term success, like earning another national title, will be driven by their daily attitude and habits.

Captain’s School, held throughout the winter months, kicked off before the sun had risen. Most players arrived at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex (SHAC) in warm, comfy clothes — a notebook and “The Slight Edge” in hand.

“It’s not a fashion show,” Bryce said, grinning. “You just have to show up.”

After hearing from a rotating ensemble of guest speakers ranging from sleep experts to financial advisors to coaches who shared their insights and advice, NDSU’s football team transformed into a book club. The players scattered into breakout groups that compete together throughout the year, earning points for academic achievements, meeting weight room goals, attendance at practices and team meetings, and hours of community service.

Some groups kicked back by the lockers, others in conference rooms. Bryce’s group, who chose the team name “Fourth and Volunteers,” met in what looked like a makeshift kitchen with a microwave and stainless-steel refrigerator on one side and a whiteboard on the other.

On a blustery March morning, defensive ends coach Carlton Littlejohn ’17 led the Fourth and Volunteers through a conversation on chapters 13-15, asking everyone to start by naming their heroes. My dad, my mom, my grandpa, my sister, God, the players said, one by one.

Bryce named his older brother, Trey, who kicked off his college career as starting quarterback for the Bison and became the first freshman to win the FCS Walter Payton Award before entering the NFL draft in 2021.

“He paved the way for where I want to go,” Bryce said.

The Fourth and Volunteers then talked about the qualities of givers versus takers, described some of their own daily non-negotiables, and discussed the importance of personal reflection. They shared stories and struggles; the conversations felt vulnerable and deeply sincere.

“It just really puts into perspective how people come from all different walks of life, from all over the country, to come play this sport in North Dakota, and then you build relationships with them,” Bryce said. “Those connections are almost always more rewarding than any play I could make in a game, because I know these are friends I’ll have for life.”

These strong relationships with teammates, coaches, and fans are a big part of what motivated Bryce to spend one more year at NDSU. He’s earning his MBA in business administration and closing out his last year of eligibility with the Bison, even though he had the opportunity to negotiate a bigger paycheck through the transfer portal.

“Money is great, but there are always going to be opportunities for money. I think the opportunity that I have here, to finish out my college career with my best friends, is something that’s way more valuable,” Bryce said.

There are, of course, the aches and pains of grueling practices and the adrenaline of all 12 regular-season games. The hours clocked in the weight room, the early mornings at the SHAC. The rewards of making it to the championship game, the feeling of looking out at the crowd as the team holds up another national title.

And then there are moments like this.

Two weeks before the official start of the 2025 football season, Bryce and a handful of his teammates met at West Acres Bowl, trading cleats for faux leather bowling shoes, protein shakes for pepperoni pizza.

PLAY LIKE THE BISON: Wide receiver Bryce Lance ’25, ’26 says his friendships are an essential part of his accomplishments and overall happiness. When he and his teammates aren’t on the football field, in the classroom, or at the weight room, they like to bowl, golf, play video games, and watch movies (Bryce’s favorite is a good rom-com).

When Bryce’s friend and fellow wide receiver Jackson Williams ’27, clearly in his own tier of bowling proficiency, hit a strike with his signature pink-and-purple galaxy bowling ball, it warranted a touchdown-worthy celebration.

“It’s intense,” Bryce joked. “It’s competitive.”

It’s reminiscent of what Hua Hsu wrote in his memoir, “Stay True,” a meditation on a college friendship that shaped his identity and outlook.

“The true account would be necessarily joyful … It would be an account of love and duty … It would be filled with dreams … and an eagerness to dream again,” Hsu wrote.

He could have been describing what it takes to make a team when you look back in the rearview — moment by moment, player by player, game by game. The practices at the crack of dawn. The conversations in the makeshift kitchen. The struggles. The triumphs. The occasional evenings at the bowling alley.

“It would be boring, because you simply had to be there,” Hsu concluded. “It would be poetry and not history.”